After collecting the Spark Award at last month’s IndieWire Honors, Chris Sanders now has further reason for celebration as his sci-fi adventure “The Wild Robot,” produced by Dreamworks Animation, has gone on to receive the most recognition from ASIFA-Hollywood this year, earning 10 Annie Award nominations, including in the category of Best Feature and Best Direction. No other film came close to this number, though “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” from Aardman and Netflix and “Inside Out 2” from Pixar Animation were closest with 7 nominations each. “That Christmas” from Locksmith Animation and Netflix also fared pretty well, eking out 6 nominations, including in major categories like Best Feature.
The 52nd Annual Annie Awards will be held at UCLA’s Royce Hall on February 8, 2025 at 7:00 pm PT. In addition to “The Wild Robot,” “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” “Inside Out 2,” and “That Christmas,” others competing for the title of Best Feature are “Ultraman: Rising,” presented by Netflix in association with Tsuburaya Productions, and “Kung Fu Panda 4” from Dreamworks Animation.
Following a shipwrecked robot forced to adapt to her natural surroundings and help other survive in the process, “The Wild Robot” has also been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the upcoming Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. In commenting on why the film resonates for so many at IndieWire Honors last month, Sanders said, “One of the reasons the film works the way it does is because of the way it looks, and every frame is hand-painted. It is done by hand, and that’s that kind of analog warmth I haven’t really been able to see since the hand-drawn days of ‘Lion King’ and ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ but we were able to bring that back.”
“The Wild Robot” faces stiff competition however as the no-dialogue fantasy adventure “Flow,” hailing from Latvia and Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, and Dream Well Studio, has already gone on to receive the Best Animated Feature award from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, as well as the National Board of Review and the European Film Awards. It is similarly nominated at both the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and has received three nominations from the Annie Awards as well for Best Feature — Independent, Best Direction, and Best Writing.
TV nominations in the mature category include “Bob’s Burgers” (20th Television Animation), “Solar Opposites” (20th Television Animation) “South Park” (MTV Entertainment Studios), “The Great North” (20th Television Animation), and “The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy” (Amazon MGM Studios, Titmouse Studios); in limited series, the nominees include “Dream Productions” (Pixar Animation Studios), “Iwájú” (Walt Disney Animation Studios), “Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy” (Lucasfilm Ltd.), “Moon Girl’s Lab” (Disney Television Studios, Disney Branded Television), and “My Adventures with Superman” (Warner Bros. Animation).
Lastly, the following have also received the Juried Awards: The Winsor McCay Awards will go to “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin” animator Aaron Blaise, Academy-Award winning British animator Eunice Macaulay, receiving posthumous recognition, and Canadian composer, sound designer, and sound editor Normand Roger. This year’s June Foray Award will collectively be awarded to Women in Animation, while the Ub Iwerks Award will go Alberto Menache for his work in visual effects. Finally, Don Peri and Pete Doctor will receive the Special Achievement Award for their work on the historical novel “Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt’s Animated Films.”
Keep reading for a partial list of the Annie nominations:
BEST FEATURE
“Inside Out 2”
“Kung Fu Panda 4”
“That Christmas”
“The Wild Robot”
“Ultraman: Rising”
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
BEST FEATURE — INDEPENDENT
“Chicken for Linda!”
“Flow”
“Kensuke’s Kingdom”
“Look Back”
“Mars Express”
“Memoir of a Snail”
BEST SHORT SUBJECT
“Beautiful Men”
“In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Ruthless Blade”
“The Swineherd”
“Wander to Wonder”
BEST FX — FEATURE
“Kung Fu Panda 4”
“Moana 2”
“The Wild Robot”
“Ultraman: Rising”
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION — FEATURE
“Inside Out 2”
“Kung Fu Panda 4”
“Moana 2”
“The Wild Robot”
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION — LIVE ACTION
“Better Man”
“Gladiator II”
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”
“House of the Dragon Season 2”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
BEST DIRECTION — FEATURE
“Chicken for Linda!” — Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach
“Flow” — Gints Zilbalodis
“That Christmas” — Simon Otto
“The Wild Robot” — Chris Sanders
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” — Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
BEST MUSIC — FEATURE
“Kensuke’s Kingdom” — Stuart Hancock
“Piece by Piece” — Pharrell Williams, Michael Andrews
“That Christmas” — John Powell, Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaid
“The Wild Robot” — Kris Bowers
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” — Lorne Balfe, Julian Nott
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN — FEATURE
“Inside Out 2” — Jason Deamer, Josh West, Keiko Murayama, Bill Zahn, Laura Meyer
“That Christmas” — Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn, Mike Redman
“The Wild Robot” — Raymond Zibach, Ritchie Sacilioc
“Ultraman: Rising” — The Ultraman: Rising Production Design Team
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” — Matt Perry, Darren Dubicki, Richard Edmunds, Matt Sanders, Gavin Lines
BEST STORYBOARDING — FEATURE
“Despicable Me 4” — Habib Louati
“Moana 2” — Ryan Green
“Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” — Piero Piluso
“Spellbound” — Alex Relloso Horna, Carlos Zapater Oliva
“That Christmas” — Ashley Boddy, Lorenzo Fresta, Helen Schroeder
BEST VOICE ACTING — FEATURE
Mélinée Leclerc as Linda in “Chicken for Linda!”
Maya Hawke as Anxiety in “Inside Out 2”
Lupita Nyong’o as Roz in “The Wild Robot”
Kit Connor as Brightbill in “The Wild Robot”
Brian Tyree Henry as D-16 / Megatron in “Transformers One”
BEST WRITING — FEATURE
“Flow” — Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža
“Inside Out 2” — Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein
“Kensuke’s Kingdom” — Frank Cottrell-Boyce
“Memoir of a Snail” — Adam Elliot
BEST EDITORIAL — FEATURE
“Inside Out 2” — Maurissa Horwitz, David Suther, Fiona Toth, Jonathan Vargo
“Moana 2” — Jeremy Milton, Michael Louis Hill
“The Wild Robot” — Mary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian Parker
“Ultraman: Rising” — Bret Marnell, ACE, William Max Steinberg, Nik Siefke, Ryan Sommer, Kaye Speare
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” – Dan Hembery
